ABA Online Bird Photo Quiz 107

Answer

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This month’s bird appears to be all black, except for a large patch of white on the upper wings. Granted, we cannot see much of the underparts, nor the underside of the wings. However, the left side is in the light and looks quite black, ruling out quite a few options. The bright reddish feet can certainly also help to winnow the possibilities. So, the combo of black plumage, white in the wing, and reddish feet leaves us only a few options. Because the feet rule out Muscovy Duck and the black upperparts rule out Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, we are left with White-winged Scoter and the two ABA-area species of guillemot. The white in the wing is on the coverts, not the remiges, so the last duck option goes bye-bye and we’re left with quite a difficult ID quandary.
If we could just see the underside of the wings, the ID would be straightforward, because Pigeon Guillemot has dark wing linings, while Black Guillemot has white wing linings. Yup, straightforward. C’est la vie. We will have to go with the wing patch to ID our quiz bird. Looking carefully , we should be able to note that a thin, black bar extends from the outer part of both wing patches along either the greater or median coverts (it’s not really possible to determine which from this photo) and that thiese bars do not extend all the way across the white patches.
I took this picture of a Pigeon Guillemot off San Miguel Island, Santa Barbara Co., CA, on 1 March 2010.

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The following people (listed by submission date beginning with the earliest) submitted correct answers for the February Bird Photo Quiz—Pigeon Guillemot:

Marcelo Brongo - Sant Cugat del Valles, Spain

Aspen Ellis - Ann Arbor, MI

Selena - Brooklyn, NY

Wes Hatch - Chagrin Falls

Charlotte - Alberta Canada

logan kahle - San Francisco, CA

Justyn Stahl - San Clemente Island, CA

Mark Robinson - Bainbridge Island, WA

Karl Erich Mayer - Saint Clair Shores, Michigan

Darrel R Wilder - Johnson City, TN

Dean Nicholson - Cranbrook, B.C.

David Lawton - Avon, CT

Niko Ranta - Corvallis, Oregon

Graham Etherington - Norwich, UK

Josh Southern - Raleigh, NC

Lance Verderam - e Livingston Manor, New York

Laramie Aspegren - San Jose, Costa Rica

Robert McNab - Laguna Niguel, CA

William Rockey - Esparto, CA

Michael Lester - Tucson, AZ

Greg Schrott - Avon Park, FL

Greg Zupansic - Eugene, Oregon

Peter Lane - Québec City

David Hollie - Ringgold, GA

Tom Howe - Alcoa, TN

Anya Auerbach - New York, NY

Warren Walker - Spokane, WA

Laure Neish - Penticton, BC Canada

Su Snyder - Wooster, OH

Alvan Buckley - St. John's, Newfoundland

Don Pendleton - East Palo Alto, CA

Wes Serafin - Orland Pk,Il 60462

Tanya Seebache - r Kelowna, BC

Wayne Meye - r Denison, TX

Olivier Barden - Quebec City, Qc

Alexandre Ancti - l Rimouski, Qc

Chris Warren - Austin, TX

John Rodgers - Pasadena, CA

Georgia Cont - i patzcuaro michoacan mexico

Tom Benson - San Bernardino, CA

Robert Packard - Riverside, CA

Philip Kline - Tucson, AZ

Mike McCloy - Cullowhee, NC

Claude Auchu - La Pocatiere, Quebec

Vivek Govind - Kumar Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Celestyn Brozek - Albuquerque, NM

Urs Geiser - Woodridge, IL

Mike Wasilco - Caledonia, NY

Lucie Bruce - Houston, TX

Jim Kopitzke - Mesa, AZ

Barb Robertson - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Eric Plage - Saint Petersburg, FL

Bob Archer - Portland , OR

Ann Gibson - Winfield, BC

Mike Fialkovich - Pittsburgh, PA

Linda Fink - Grand Ronde, OR

Dwight Porter - Portland, Oregon

Claire Miller - Fair Oaks, CA

Stephanie Moore - Seattle, WA

Thomas Ford-Hutchinson - Irvine, CA

Ed Harper - CA

Ann Hancock - East Lansing, MI

Enric Fernandez - Anchorage, Alaska

John Oliver - Arcata, CA

Robert Lockett - Portland, Oregon

David Bell - Guelph, ON

George Cresswell - Colorado Springs, CO

Chris Sukha - Field, Ontario

Andrew Guttenberg - Bozeman, MT

Gary Woods - fresno, CA

Blake Mathys - West Mansfield, OH

James Mckay - Mesa, AZ

Spencer Hardy - Norwich, VT

William von Herff - Ottawa, Ontario

Terri Everett - Big Rapids, MI

Sarah J. Zastrow - Riverdale, MD

Mary Zastrow - Riverdale, MD

William Jone - s Shropshire, England

Aiden Moser - Henniker, New Hampshire

Dave Slager - Columbus, Ohio

John Brett - Toronto, ON

Daroczi J. Szilard - Tg.-Mures, Romania

bill shuster - cooper landing, ak

Michael Kline - Fredericksburg Va.

Thomas Hopkins - Saint Petersburg, FL

Lorenzo Rohani - Edmonds Washington

Matthew Schneider - Silverton, Oregon

How Did You Compare?

As stated in the quiz rules, answers must consist simply of the Common or English name exactly as it appears in the ABA Checklist.

The following list shows the number of submissions for each species guessed.